The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) seen through the artwork of Harold Dearden (1888-1969)

 Our September talk was given by Philip Dearden, grandson of the artist Harold Dearden. Philip has been researching the paintings and life of his grandfather over the last year, and discovered many paintings he produced over his life. 

The first couple of slides summarise Harold Dearden's life from being born in Rochdale, attending Rochdale School of Art, attending the Royal College of Art, then teaching art at York, Halifax and Gloucester schools of art until he came to Swindon where he taught art for 30 years and was immersed in the art scene in Swindon.

One hundred years after Harold's graduation, in 2015, the 193 countries that make up the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This historic agenda lays out 17 Sustainable Development Goals and targets for dignity, peace and prosperity for the planet and humankind, to be completed by the year 2030.

Philip grouped  selected paintings together according to their subject matter, and encouraged the audience with an SDG. I have taken a few photos of the slides to illustrate what was shown:

The first ones have been done, and show what a marvellous diversity of images there are, and how well they reflect the different times

It's quite difficult to see them with so many paintings on each slide

I'll make them larger, but the best way of looking at them is to watch a recording of Philip talking which can be found by clicking here

 You will see included in the next slides, the paintings Salubritas et Industria, the Swindon motto. Below are two photos of the Salubritas painting, meaning health. The one on the left was photographed from the original painting which originally hung in the Town Hall and ended up rolled up in a skip, found by Terry Court and currently rolled up in storage

Are these Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth possibly. You can see the Industria painting bottom left in poor condition like the one above. The coat of arms and explanation of it can be found here.

The paintings below illustrate Goal 15: Life on land: protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems

The talk was wonderfully informative and visually stunning. I'm pleased there's a recording of it because this post does not do it justice, but gives an idea of what Harold Dearden's work is like. There are quite a few examples of his work in the Swindon Collection and I hope there will be an exhibition dedicated to his work before long.

 

The Arts and Crafts Movement in the Cotswolds

 Kirsty Hartsiotis gave our August lecture in the Council Chamber, an excellent tour through the history and relevance of the Arts and Crafts movement based in the Cotswolds. Kirsty is giving a talk tonight on Medieval Stained Glass to the Winchcombe history group. I would love to have gone if I didn't have a committee meeting. 

Kirsty started by talking about The Great Exhibition in 1851 which was technically very good, this may have spawned a group of people who wanted to make things in small workshops mimicking the medieval workshops. Some of those included in this workshop movement were The Morris and Burne-Jones families seen here together in 1874 and inset Philip Webb in 1873.

The Arts and Crafts movement was a state of mind, a way of making things in a simple way, whether it was furniture, houses, hair combs, they were simple forms inspired by nature. High quality materials were used and the objects were made in small workshops

Examples of stained glass made by Burne-Jones and Ford Maddox Brown among others for Morris, Marshall & Faulkner abound from this time. Many had trained at Birmingham School of Art 

The Cotswolds at that time afforded cheap housing in wonderful countryside which is why so many of those involved in the movement lived there. 10 years ago to the day, we visited the chapel at Marlborough College where there are stained glass windows designed by Burne-Jones and fantastic pre Raphaelite paintings by John Spencer-Stanhope.

During this time William Morris moved to Kelmscott and Sidney and Ernest Barnsely and Ernest Gimson built 3 houses together using traditional building techniques. Rodmarton Manor is one of those houses, and also Cotswold Farm, 

Above more things made at this time, the Iznik influences charger

Above a gorgeous black mare made by William Simmonds

and a necklace made by Ashbee who was based in Chipping Campden, I think.

There was so much information imparted by Kirsty who until recently worked at The Wilson, if you click on the link, you can find more information on the Arts and Crafts Movement. 

The Friends have donated £500 to discover what is inside a Roman Bucket acquired fairly recently by MAS and Kirsty was fortunately able to show us what was found inside:

I think the bucket will go on display with explanations before long

The vase inside the bucket looks much younger and there's something else in there which I couldn't really see.

It was certainly very exciting seeing the contents of the bucket and also hearing about the arts and crafts virtually on our doorstep.

Wilfrid Wright on Elisabeth Frink 25 July

 We had a busy evening on Thursday 25 July with the Friends' celebration of the opening of Museum & Art Swindon held on the first floor to give people an opportunity to look round. There were drinks and nibbles followed by a speech made by the Chair, appealing for more members to join the Friends' committee and thanking the 60 or so people who came for coming. We were also celebrating the move of Swindon Museum and Art Gallery from Apsley House into bigger premises at the Civic Offices and its transformation into Museum & Art Swindon.

After the celebrations we were treated to a wonderful lecture on Elisabeth Frink by Wilfrid Wright who has written on Frink and researched the essence of her work. He has contributed a chapter to the book accompanying the exhibition: A View from Within:

Wilfrid is a very engaging speaker who took us right to the heart of Frink, her motivations and ways of working. I don't have any photos of the gathering or the presentation because I was downstairs selling tickets for the talk and then unbeknown to me left my phone in the downstairs toilet.

The Frink exhibition is excellent and very well presented and laid out. I do have a photo of it:

If anyone took photos that evening, please send them to me and I'll add them here.

Pebble Mosaics in Cavendish Square

 Maggy Howarth who created unique pebble mosaics has died aged 79. Attracted by the appearance of the design in her Guardian obituary, I was amazed when I read that Thamesdown Borough Council commissioned two of her pebble mosaics in 1990 for Cavendish Square. I haven't heard anything about them, so thought I'd look up Cavendish Square Swindon, and there's nothing there either. It is however on the Swindon Index website where it says that one of the pebble mosaics had to be relocated to the lawn outside St. John's church due to restructuring of Cavendish Square.

Both mosaics appear on the Art UK website, two of ten entries. They looked lovely and not believing I had never heard of them, I walked over to have a look. 

This is the mosaic situated at the entrance to Cavendish Square. It has a fishy watery them with a sailing boat which seems quite strange since Swindon is about as far from the sea as you can get in the country. Maybe someone knows why this subject was chosen?

The other mosaic outside the church is much easier to understand. Maggy has depicted three birds with a steam engine inside on, a white horse in another and a cottage in the third.

Above the mosaic and below two close ups, the first with the steam engine inside:

and this one with a white horse inside

They are really beautiful and definitely worth visiting. I wonder if the one in the grass may need the weeds taking out of it. 

The Shape of Things: Still Life in Britain

 The talk about the new exhibition at Pallant House Gallery: The Shape of Things: Still Life in Britain was due to be given by Chief Curator at the Pallant, Melanie Vandenbrouck at the end of May via Zoom, however, Zoom had changed their settings and I didn't realise I needed to give people attending a passcode, or tick the no passcode box, only a handful of people were able to join us via Zoom, so Melanie kindly agreed to give the talk at the end of June. Postponing the talk meant we had two talks in June which was rather nice. 

Melanie explained a bit about PHG about the 500 objects, the Kelly bequest. How Sandy Wilson and MJ Long also extended the collection in the early 2000s. In 2006, the Golder-Thompson gift included 550 prints, drawings and ceramics. Melanie paid tribute to the generosity of donors and reminded us that the permanent collection is housed in the old house and new wing. 

The temporary exhibition programme has 2 seasons per year April/May to October and then November to April.

Melanie then showed masses of slides of the exhibition; there 150 works by 100 artists, 40 of them living, in the exhibition including the one used for the poster, Bright Intervals by Edward Wadsworth seen below loaned by Museum & Art Swindon:

Museum & Art Swindon also loaned William Roberts painting: La nature mort

Melanie showed us many wonderful views of the exhibition rooms, themed as you will see below: Still Life as a genre was born in the 17th Century when migrant Dutch artists such as Simon Verelst and Edward Collier came to England. Mary Moser, one of the two female founders of the Royal Academy in 1768 was notable for her extraordinary skill in flower paintings, historical subjects and portraits. Here are examples of some of the first Still Life paintings by these artists:

and then there are some beautiful paintings below in this group of early twentieth century artists including Nina Hamnett, Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, George Lesley Hunter, JD Ferguson, Walter Sickert and Mark Gertler featured here but others in the exhibition representing the turn of the century

Post First World War is represented by the room titled Order, Reality and Dreams
 represented by Edward Wadsworth, David Jones and Howard Hodgkins.

Next Paths to Abstraction through the dissolution of objects into arrangements of volume, form and colour featuring work of Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Anwar Jalal Shemza, William Scott and Margaret Mellis

The next room, painted black reflects on the second world war and its aftermath

After the war and into the sixties, life changed reflected in the art produced by a new group of artists

 

There are some wonderful works in the Stillness and Reflection room.

I've also included the Phoebe Cummings piece below; her exhibition of unfired clay structures will be on display until 20 October

and it looks like there's a wonderful exhibition of British Studio Ceramics in the Print Room

I'm Hoping to visit Pallant House Gallery this Thursday and really looking forward to seeing this amazing exhibition. So wonderful to have this insight into the exhibition.

June Talk: Dee Ferris and Katie Ackrill in Conversation

 We used to hold regular 'in conversation' sessions with artists in our collection, so when putting together this year's talks, I thought I'd bring back the format with Dee Ferris if she was available because two of Dee Ferris' works were acquired for the Swindon Collection through the Contemporary Art Society. The two works have been on display in the space where works were shown on the ground floor of the Civic Offices before Museum & Art Swindon opened on the first floor. Here they are:

Above 'Sleepy Hollow' 2014 and below 'The Places We Go' 2022

There's also rather a good photo of both paintings with Cllr Marina Strinkovsky in between which gives you a good idea of their size.:

There was an article in the Advertiser said about the works in March 2023

We held the in conversation in the Council Chamber and photos taken from the large screens don't look too good, but I'll add them because they are a record of the event.

Above Katie Ackrill, Collections and Exhibitions Organise at MAS and on the left, Dee Ferris

Above on the left, This England, and on the right a photo of the first show at Corvi-Mora in 2004.

A very enjoyable in conversation, thank you Katie for interviewing and Dee for agreeing to go through the process.

Museum and Art Swindon opened 9th of July 2024

 Museum and Art Swindon, the former Swindon Museum and Art Gallery, officially opened its doors today at 10.30am. This is great news for all who have missed being able to visit the museum and gallery over the last 4 years. There was a preview yesterday and I was privileged to be able to look round, although I must say I was so excited, I didn't really take much in. The new museum and gallery are now situated on the first floor of the Civic Offices in Euclid St; the conversion is really good, and the space and general ambience of the site is perfect. This is what the Adver said about the opening last Friday: Swindon's museum and art gallery to open in new location | Swindon Advertiser

I didn't take many photos, this one taken before the ribbon cutting was taken by Friends committee member Martin Newman, thank you Martin. Back row, Frances Yeo, Museums Manager, Cllr Jim Robbins, Leader of the Council then front row, right to left, Cllr Strinkovsky , the Mayor, Cllr Imtiyaz Shaikh and me: 

I looked on social media and found Wessex Museums had taken some excellent photos, these are courtesy of them; I hope they don't mind my sharing them:

Above a view of the shop with the Origins exhibition which looks at the history of MAS from 1912 until the present day.

The Elisabeth Frink exhibition is a highlight, a travelling exhibition made possible by Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation funding through the Wessex Museums. Above ;The Risen Christ' Maquette and on the right, 'Green Man' part of the Swindon Collection.

Above and below different views of the Frink exhibition. We are holding a Friends' talk by Wilfrid Wright on Elisabeth Frink on 25 July after a celebration of the opening.

It's quite interesting that Swindon had an Elisabeth Frink sculpture outside WH Smith. It was a running man and was sold about 20 years ago. Money raised reputedly paid for new signage.

I also included a photo of the ceramics and jewellery cabinet, there's lots of fabulous stuff to buy in the shop with a high standard of displays both with things to buy and also with the other displays. 

There are quite a few talks and tours, so check out the What's On section of the website.

Great to have Museum and Art Swindon open after 4 years and looking forward to seeing more of the Swindon Collection of Twentieth Century Art on display soon.